Salah is completely useless

Know the bench is beyond thin, but not a single sub 73 minutes in. Try rio or chiesa to generate something. Maybe Gomez at rb and move Szo up mid and take Mac out

On cue

At least 10 minutes too late

Tksymm7 said:

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Mac Allister is trash.

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Okay he's less trash

Nope. Not gonna count and if so lucky anyway

How can you tell that hits his arm whatsoever????

Clearly hit his arm/elbow

That was a horrible by Ekitike. Should score on the first chance/

Suck it Forest

Omg

Definition of smash and grab

Offside unreal

I'm not going to lie I has this sport at times lol

What??

HUGE RESULT!

Clearly the best formula for Liverpool this year is scoring right at the end of the game. Less chance of giving up the late equalizer when we go into our defensive shell.

That was one of the weirdest games I've ever seen.

Huge 3 pts! Can't believe we stole that. Thank goodness NF has zero finishing capabilities. Rio has got to play more. Created more opportunities in his 10 minutes than anyone else the whole game combined.

Agree. I'm not sure I care much on how it looks anymore. Just win baby!

Gabriel is a disgrace. I hate him so much.

Definitely take points any way we can get them these days. But man, we are such a mess and need so much help. We looks so old, slow, and confused. We need wingers with pace and ball skills in the worst way. Gakpo and Salah are just boat anchors at this point. Gakpo has no pace, is clumsy and just plodding with the ball. We have all discussed Salah's drop off...but he is just completely gone now. He received the ball with his man beat by a step today...got caught immediately and gave up a goal kick. He was completely dismantled any time he ever touched the ball or just gave it away. But nothing new there. Both him and Gakpo have to pull back every time they get the ball. Really no point in having wingers if they can't attack, push forward, and tax the defense obviously. For the millionth time, losing Diaz was huge and not replacing him was even worse.

You know who can though? Rio. In 15 minutes he attacked, went inside and out, had their backs on their heels and immediately created scoring opportunities. That he came on only with 15 minutes left is criminal, but that's Slot for you. I get how young he is, but he has got to play more. And Salah getting pulled, his smirks/grin sure seemed like the old I'm not droppable Salah crap. Just time for him to move on.

I'll leave the midfield for another day....

Thankfully that was only NF, any other team with an offensive pulse wins that one easily.

I agree ten fold on everything you said. He brought on Rio and Chiesa honestly sooner than I thought he would, so perhaps Slot knows Gakpo and Salah aren't getting it done. Rio is in for more minutes without a doubt, and they need to invest into two wingers this offseason no matter the cost or circumstance.

I can handle the midfield for you; atrocious. Every single one of them besides one moment from Mac Allister at the end. I do think they got better when they moved Szbo in and put jones on the outside, but they were all pretty awful for the most part.

Mac Allister and Gravenberch in particular were horrendous. Every ball seemed to bounce off both of them and then they gave it away. Mac Allister I thought was an issue because you can run around him so easily because he's such a poor athlete. Last thing; we need a No. 6 who can pass the ball accurately and break lines. Literally none of them can do it except Szbo on occasion.

ETA: it's so obvious this roster is deficient and lack luster idk what to think about Slot anymore.

Monday morning thoughts on the weekend's happenings:

I will start by slightly defending Arne Slot in that he has had such few options with the amount of injuries we have had as of late. The fact that we continue to have 2 GKs on the bench is pitiful. That being said, Slot is reluctant to do or try anything different. It's the same boring thing over and over again. If Forest had anybody worth a damn on the offensive side, we lose that game by 3 or 4 goals. So we take the "smash and grab" and the 3 points and move on. Luckily, we have West Ham next who, apart from Wolves (who we ironically play after the Hammers), may be the worst side in the division.

Like many on this board and throughout the Liverpool internet, I continue to have changing and evolving theories on Arne Slot. My current one is that he is scared to play the young players. Where Klopp would have relished the challenge of fostering a young talent and figuring out how to fit them into the larger puzzle, Slot is terrified. He can use the excuse of "protecting" the young player all he wants, but at some point, you have to try something new with the pieces currently at your disposal. The description of Cody Gakpo and Salah as boat anchors is accurate, imo. Gakpo literally just takes up space on the LW. Contributes nothing other than doing the same move where he cuts onto his right foot from the left and shoots regardless if there are bodies in front or not. Salah has, admittedly, lost his pace, but he is at least capable of picking out the top corner or finding the right pass. He had an awful game yesterday and has now gone nine games without finding the back of the net. Rio has yet to start a PL match. I really hope that changes this weekend.

Macca has a knack of being in the right place at the right time, but he is enduring a tough season. Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson (every time I watch him, I am more convinced this is the midfielder I want) were running circles around him. CuJo can at least keep possession, frustratingly so at times as I catch myself watching him and thinking he should have passed the ball 6 touches ago. But he does quite well in recovering the ball and has more than earned his place in the side. Gravenberch is enduring a tough spell but there is a good player in there and he is one of the type of players that I think you allow him to play himself out of the slump. Szoboszlai, on the other hand, has been our best player this season and needs to play in the midfield. The one good thing I saw from Slot yesterday was switching Jones and Szobo midway through the first half. I can't find much on Wirtz and his injury yesterday. I am hopeful he just felt a tweak and can at least make the bench for West Ham's visit to Anfield.

I actually think our defense has been somewhat decent? We have kept 4 clean sheets in our last 6 games with scores reading 6-0, 4-1, 1-2, 1-0. 3-0, 1-0. Konate has played himself into earning a contract extension. I was one of the ones that was indifferent, almost welcoming, if he left. Since the turn of the year, he has been playing really well. VvD has returned to mostly his former self. He still makes a the odd decision every now and then, but, by and large, has been doing well for us. Milos Kerkez has been improving with each passing game. If we can get Gakpo, or whoever plays LW, to quit ignoring every lapping run he makes, he will continue to have a positive impact. And then there is our cursed RB position. I think you just play Joe Gomez until he inevitably breaks. I am so tired of seeing one of our midfielders play there when we have Calvin Ramsay just sitting there. Maybe he's sh*t. Or maybe he comes on like TAA or Conor Bradley. But I would sure like to find out.

For West Ham:
Rio - Ekitike - Salah
Jones - Grav - Szoboszlai
Kerkez - VvD - Ibou - Gomez
Alisson

Agree wholeheartedly.

I don't think Slot has a ton of options and that's why we are seeing what we are seeing. We pretty much have one way to play at the moment sans playing Rio more, and if that style is effective against the opposition then great, and if it's not effective then we're going to hold on for dear life.

Rio does need a start though I think. Whether that's on the right or the left I don't care, but he at least gives you more pace and more options in attack. I'd give him 90 minutes across the Wolves and West Ham games. I'd also give Chiesa some real run across those two games as well. Games are going to start coming hot and heavy again with the EPL, CL and FA cup heating up. Need to rotate some.

At RB I also agree they are going to have to just start playing Gomez along with Frimpong when he comes back (which should be soon). Load manage them together for all I care, but we cannot afford to have Szbo play RB anymore, at least against teams that can put serious pace on the field. He's gotta be in midfield.

I think we are all in agreement for the most part on what ails us. As for Slot, I am not sold on him nor am I Slot out. I won't go to deep here, but I, like most of us, have said this is a whole organization issue from the top down. FSG, Edwards/Hughes, Slot and the players. The roster construction is flawed, the drop off of form from players like Salah, injuries and misses on the coaching side are contributing to it all. However, for Slot, fair or not he will be the first to take the brunt. Just the way it goes. What are the deciding factors from the club, no clue. I will say this, that poor stretch of form and the game yesterday is too much/inexcusable regardless of injuries and what not. Too many times, relegation type teams are completely outplaying us. It shouldn't be that bad. That's just my opinion. That and his stubborness to play/sub younger players with the likes of Rio and others will potentially do him in.

On Wirtz, Slot said yesterday it was his back and nothing serious and hopefully back this weekend. Frimpong was also hopefully to be available for West Ham. We will see.

What I noticed yesterday and one of main reasons I think we can get "dominated" by lower tier sides is because those lower tier sides can field track teams for lack of a better phrase, and we are SLOW and unathletic in a lot of positions on the field.

Forest ran through us like a hot knife through butter yesterday. The amount of speed they had on the field in that first half absolutely overwhelmed us. As has been mentioned already, but Gakpo is a slow plodder, Salah doesn't have the top end gear anymore, Ekitike while fast in a straight line and when he gets up to speed isn't some burner or necessarily quick, Jones is an average athlete, Mac Allister is a well below average athlete and the list goes on. There's a reason that when Szbo moved back into the middle of the field we got a hold of the game more.

You MUST have athletes in the EPL. It's the NFL and NBA of world football. The athletes get better by the year. Mac Allister is a great example of simply getting more and more exposed as time goes on.

We've talked about this before, but it bears repeating and highlighting, that what Liverpool lacks, and has lacked for many years now, is adequate squad depth. Arsenal (who I really hope end up bottling it) and Man City are two, sometimes three, deep at every position. As much as it pains me to say it, but given the course of this season, those are the two clubs who have set the benchmark. That is the standard you have to meet if you want to win another league title.

We were largely fortunate last season in that Mo Salah hit unreal heights and we were largely unaffected by injuries that our lack of squad depth went unpunished. We had the title more or less rapped up with like 8 games to go. Right now, if Konate or VvD goes down, who is the next man up? A fragile Joe Gomez and moving Gravenberch to CB? In other words, an injury prone player and yet another midfielder we have to play out of position. Now I don't think it was that bad when we started the season. Frimpong and Bradley as RBs, Robbo and Kerkez as LBs, and VvD, Konate, Leoni and Gomez as CBs. But with Bradley & Leoni out for the season, Frimpong & Gomez struggling for fitness. We're basically down to 2 CBs and 2 LBs.

Up front, we've talked ad nauseum that we let the wrong LW go in Luis Diaz. Salah has fallen off a cliff. No one could have predicted Diogo Jota. And Isak has been unfortunate, some of it self-inflicted, most of it unlucky. So we are left with Gakpo who just takes up space, Salah who can't currently buy a goal, Ekitike who is starving for service and misses the one to two chances he has a game (for the record, I still think he was a good signing and has largely done quite well for us), Chiesa who Slot doesn't like, and a 17 year old Rio that our manager refuses to play. The pieces to change things aren't there and that is what I mean by adequate squad depth. You look at our bench and who can Slot even bring on? Arsenal can call on a number of attacking players to change a game. And City just dipped into the January market to fill in the temporary holes they had. What did we do in January? Argue with Aston Villa about Harvey Elliott? A player that, ironically enough, would actually provide something different for us and would be a good asset.

I think back to the peak Klopp years with Bobby, Mane, and Salah. At one point in time for like 2 or 3 seasons, they were the best, most lethal front three in world football. And they were electrifying. But they also stayed largely fit. Who did we really have pushing them? Like others have said, from FSG to Edwards/Hughes to Slot, we have some holes and I don't think it started Summer 2025. I hope this summer, it has become clear to FSG that Summer 2025 was more of a "clear out" window and that Summer 2026 needs to be a "finish building" window. We are in desperate need of some wingers, a CDM, and a CB. I would really like Robbo and Salah to announce some time in late April or May their intentions of leaving in the summer so that they can get the recognition and goodbye they so thoroughly deserve. That way, we can fully turn to the next chapter and the next evolution of this great football club.

My guess would be that FSG, Edwards and Hughes have/had a plan for this rebuild. There's just no way you can be in those positions and not have some sort of plan for the next two, three and four years. However, what they did not plan for is the amount of major injuries, fall off of key players, and just how pronounced the difference is from having Diaz, Nunez, and Jota to not having those three guys be able to mix in up front and off the bench. The dropoff has been astronomical, and I don't think they believed it would be this big of a difference.

It's so frustrating watching Man U be lethal on the counter attack. They are average everywhere else imo, but they are downright killer on the counter because they have guys with pace and guys who can pick a pass. Very annoying especially when you consider how inept we are trying to counter. We'd probably have three more wins this season if we could do anything on the break.

Rio attempted and completed more dribbles and created as many opportunities as Gakpo and Salah combined in only 15 minutes. Woof.

2 legit wingers and a real 6 is an absolute must. Players will leave and nothing else won't even be enough depth. If Konate stays and Leoni/Jaquette/VVD would be solid potential at cb. Frimpong and Bradley (big fan here) at RB is strong on paper but they are made of glass. Kerkez is really coming on, just need a backup as Robbo leaves.

Sorry for the lame constant texts. Hate typing my thoughts on phone lol.

So what's the best future state? Traditional 4-3-3? Wirtz, Szo, Grav (or a real 6?) as the mids? Some out positions here no matter what we do. And weak spots…but that's at all teams.

Well I think we can be sure of a few things; Wirtz is the future of this club and I think you set up a team around him, at least so far as the midfield and forwards are concerned.

Here's the thing though, while I think we could use a real deal No. 6, I think what we miss most often is the ability to pass through and over lines. Funny thing is I think this is one of Wirtz best abilities. To drop a bit deeper on occasion or collect the ball on a counter and get the ball long to the correct spot and person. It's NOT a strength Mac or Gravenberch imo. Szbo can do it but he's not in those positions all that often with as much running as he does.

So that sort of begs the question; do you want to have two guys on the field that can pick passes (Wirtz does it all but I'm just highlighting this feature)? Or would you rather go out and get a large, physical sweeper that is going to clean up messes and progress the ball forward more traditionally?

I personally think having another guy who can thread the needle would help immensely, but I also think that because our wide players do absolutely nothing. So if we got legit wide players again would that eliminate such a need for a midfielder than can break you? And would a clean up man No. 6 be better? I truly don't know the answer.

And truth be told I don't really remember a game where all three of Szbo, Gravenberch and Wirtz were playing in the midfield together and clicking on all cylinders. Maybe those three on the field at one time is the perfect balance.

Tksymm7 said:

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Well I think we can be sure of a few things; Wirtz is the future of this club and I think you set up a team around him, at least so far as the midfield and forwards are concerned.

Here's the thing though, while I think we could use a real deal No. 6, I think what we miss most often is the ability to pass through and over lines. Funny thing is I think this is one of Wirtz best abilities. To drop a bit deeper on occasion or collect the ball on a counter and get the ball long to the correct spot and person. It's NOT a strength Mac or Gravenberch imo. Szbo can do it but he's not in those positions all that often with as much running as he does.

So that sort of begs the question; do you want to have two guys on the field that can pick passes (Wirtz does it all but I'm just highlighting this feature)? Or would you rather go out and get a large, physical sweeper that is going to clean up messes and progress the ball forward more traditionally?

I personally think having another guy who can thread the needle would help immensely, but I also think that because our wide players do absolutely nothing. So if we got legit wide players again would that eliminate such a need for a midfielder than can break you? And would a clean up man No. 6 be better? I truly don't know the answer.

And truth be told I don't really remember a game where all three of Szbo, Gravenberch and Wirtz were playing in the midfield together and clicking on all cylinders. Maybe those three on the field at one time is the perfect balance.

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That sounds like Adam Whartons music.

I think they have been trying to build this team into a 4-2-3-1. I see Isak as the no. 9 and Wirtz just behind him in that 10 role. I would hope that they then dip into the market for a RW and LW and then you could rotate those two with Rio, Chiesa (or move him on and bring another winger in), and Ekitike (who would also rotate with Isak). Gakpo will hopefully be moved on (I've seen rumors from different outlets saying that Bayern expects to cash in on Olise and they would want Diomande as their primary target and Gakpo as their second choice). If Olise moved to Liverpool, I think that would be a fantastic upgrade. Then dip back into the market for a true no. 6, one that can move the ball and is a good passer of the ball. Szoboszlai would be the engine that runs by him. Jones and Gravenberch would serve as rotation options. Not sure how long Endo would be out for and then there is Nyoni and Bajcetic. Can they become contributors and options in rotation (It would require Slot to put some faith in the Academy so I wouldn't hold my breath). In defense, I think we get one more year out of VvD as Leoni returns and new signing Jeremy Jacquet assimilates to the squad. We did sign a few youngsters who have been playing CB in the youth teams. Maybe one of them can be good enough to provide an additional option? (Again, Slot and the Academy. Is there any trust there?). Joe Gomez could provide cover at CB and RB where I hope Frimpong is able to shake off the fitness bug he has been dealing with and Bradley is able to start the season strong. We would then just need a cover for Kerkez at LB as I expect Robbo to call time on his Liverpool career.

So Incomings would be:
LW
RW
CDM
Backup LB

Outgoings:
Gakpo
Salah
Robertson
Mac Allister
Ramsay